SparkleShan

"Laziness will stop your progress in your spiritual practice. One can be deceived by three types of laziness: the laziness of indolence, which is the wish to procrastinate; the laziness of inferiority, which is doubting your capabilities; and the laziness that is attached to negative actions, or putting great effort into nonvirtue."

"Inner Darkness, which we call ignorance, is the root of suffering. The more inner light that comes, the more darkness will diminish. This is the only way to achieve salvation or Nirvana."

Here is part two of my Phat Fiber blog Post. I will be going over some of the accessories that I received. First off I got a lovely lavender hand stamped sachet from Ambrosia and Bliss . I absolutely love lavender and the smell of this sachet is the first thing I smelled when I opened the Phat Fiber Box. It now sits on my pillow at night when I go to sleep! From Left to Right in the below picture I have Stitch Markers and a scrabble tile pendant from Calizona Designs . A cute little Alpaca from My Fair Bag Lady , Chocolate Cookie Lip Balm from Bunky Bobos and a cute lamb pendant from Designs by Tami .

"What are reborn are our habits. Enlightenment is the ending of rebirth, which means a complete nonattachment or misidentification with all thoughts, feelings, perceptions, physical sensations, and ideas."

A friend of mine, Brittany, has a wonderful etsy store, Bohemian Knitter Chic . She designs patterns which she sells on the site and she is also venturing into Fiber art. She has started spinning yarn and dying fiber, and let me tell you here stuff is pretty awesome. She has a great eye for color and makes wonderful inspired art yarns. She also started making necklaces out of Supercoil art yarn and they are truly unique, you can win one, just go to her Blog and check out what you have to do to enter.

"The person who has a tremendous reserve of patience and tolerance has a certain degree of tranquility and calmness in his or her life. Such a person is not only happy and more emotionally grounded, but also seems to he physically healthier and to experience less illness. This person possesses a strong will, has good appetite, and can sleep with a clear conscience."

"If objects evoke attachment in us, we do not understand the true nature of phenomena. We can only become detached by realizing the true nature of things."

"Nonviolence is the only way. Even if you achieve your goal by violent means there are always side effects, and these can be worse than the problem. Violence is against human nature."

"If ones life is simple contentment has to come. Simplicity is extremely important for happiness. Having few desires, feeling satisfied with what you have, is very vital: satisfaction with just enough food, clothing, and shelter to protect yourself from the elements. An finally, there is an intense delight in abandoning faulty states of mind an in cultivating helpful ones in meditation."

"If a person has never encountered love toward himself or herself from any quarter, it is a very sad thing. But if that person can meet even one person who will show unconditional love-simply acceptance and compassion-if he knows that he is an object of someone else's affection and love, it is bound to have an impact, and this will be appreciated. Because there is a seed in himself, this act of love will start to catalyse or ripen that seed."

I finally received my box from Phat Fiber today! I squealed with delight when I saw the box being brought to me by the unit mail clerk. It only took 5 days to get here, which is fast compared to the rest of the mail I have been getting lately. I opened the box and a wonderful smell came over me. I couldn't help but pet and snuggle the wonderful yarn and fibers I received. First are the Fiber Samples I received. From left to right: Giffordables 1/2 oz Batt of 75% Corriedale & Romney, 25% Silk & linen, it also came with a little bag of angora. Giffordables is one of my mew favorite Fiber Artist. I read a post on the PhatFiber Blog about her batts so I decided to check out her shop. The batts are wonderful and very inexpensive, I just had to order 4 batts from her. Not to mention that the owner, Suzie, is a sweet heart (I will be posting a seperate blog with more about Giffordables and with pics of the batts I ordered). Next the multi colored green is from Spincerely Yours (

"There's no shop that sells kindness; you must build it within. You can transplant hearts, but you cannot transplant a warm heart."

I am so bad for not posting this earlier. But one of my fellow Raveler, Knit Girl and Spinner, Carrie a.k.a CraftyPuppyLover, started spinning yarns inspired by girls in the Knit Girl Group. She spun up a yarn for little old me, I feel so honored. I of course had to have the yarn, which she offered on her Etsy Shop . Here is her description of the Yarn: "Fourth in my new series of knit girl inspired yarns. What's a knit girl you ask? Well, hop on over to ravelry and you'll find out quickly, we're a bunch of hot, kick ass ladies with tattoos and serious knitting skills. We've got each other's back, always offer a shoulder to cry on, and aren't afraid to show off our tattoos. I figured it only appropriate that I would name hand spun yarn after these fine ladies ~ since the only thing more unique than hand spun yarn is a genuine knit girl. Sparkleshan is one fine lady, she's just starting to spin and her yarns look great. I knew this "red" white

I spun up another wonderful batt from Jenna at Uniquely Yours. This batt was called White wedding and contained BFL,Faux Cashmere, Firestar and Tulle. It also Came with some extra add ins of white pearls and sequins. SO this came out to be bit of an art yarn. It's super bulky, 31 yards and soo soft. Now I just have to find a project to knit with it! And here is just some simpled soy silk that I spun up. Its about 43 yards.

"It is because of the intimate relationship between mind and body, and the existence of special physiological centers within our body, that physical yoga exercises and the application of special meditative techniques aimed at training the mind can have positive effects on health."

"Buddhahood is a state free of all obstructions to knowledge and disturbing emotions. It is the state in which the mind is fully evolved."

"As far as your personal requirements are concerned, the ideal is to have fewer involvements, fewer obligations, and fewer affairs, business or whatever. However, so far as the interest of the larger community is concerned, you must have as many involvements as possible and as many activities as possible."

"Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a stroke of good luck."

"If through practice of insight you develop a sense of ease, then time has no relevance. If you're miserable, time does matter. It's so unbearable, so enormous; you want to get out of it as soon as possible."

"When you engage in fulfilling the needs of others, your own needs are fulfilled as a by-product."

I was introduced to another wonderful Etsy Fiber artist by a fellow Ravelry. Here name is Jenna and she has a store on Etsy called Uniquely Yours Designs where she sells Fiber Batts, Hand dyed Roving and Hand spun yarn. I feel in love with her Batts, they have such wonderful colors and sparkle. I got 3 batts of fiber in the mail from her the other day and I spun up the first one a few nights ago. Here are the 3 Batts that I received from Jenna. Here is the orange batt (contains merino, Angelina and firestar) spun up. First I spun up the batt into a thick and thin single and then I plied it with peach crochet cotton and coils in the yarn throughout. It came out to 43 yards super bulky.

Happiness is a state of mind. With physical comforts... if your mind is still in a state of confusion and agitation, it is not happiness. Happiness means calmness of mind."

"What irritates us in the first place us that our wishes are not fulfilled. But remaining upset does nothing to help fulfill those wishes. So we neither fulfill our wishes nor regain our cheerfulness. This disconcerted state, from which anger can grow, is most dangerous. We should never try to let our happy frame of mind be disturbed. Whether we are suffering at present or have suffered in the past, there is no reason to be unhappy."

The Spindlers group on Ravelry has a spin along every month and every month they have a different theme. You then Post pictures of your finished skein in that months thread and a random winner is drawn each month. February was the first month I participated in the Spin A long and the theme was Mardi Gras. So I decided to spin up a Batt from Butterfly Girl Designs that was red and purple bamboo, black merino and firestar and Angelina. I thought it fit the theme pretty well. I called the finished skein 'Ruby Tuesday' The March theme was Romance and of course I immediately though of pinks. This is inspired by pink roses and is the first 3 ply yarn I have ever spun. I spun thin singles of Soy silk, super wash merino and merino & Angelina. Then I plied the three together and came out with this wonderfully girl yarn and I have to add that it is super soft! I just wish that I had more of the soy silk so that I could make more length!

"If the mind is tranquil and occupied with positive thoughts, the body will not easily fall prey to disease."

"It is under the greatest adversity that there exists the greatest potential for doing good, both for oneself and others."

"I always believe that it is much better to have a variety of religions, a variety of philosophy. This is necessary because of the different mental dispositions of each human being. Each religion has certain unique ideas or techniques, and learning about them can only enrich one's own faith."

I joined the Novelty and Art Yarn Spinners group on Ravelry. It is filled with wonderfully talented spinners. I love spinning and this group has inspired me to try new things to create novelty and art yarns. Here is a picture of my first attempt at adding coils to yarn. First I spun a thick and thin single of pink merino top and then plied it with Navy Blue crochet cotton. I held the crochet cotton straight up and held the merino at a 45 degree angle and let it wrap in around the cotton. Then to get the coils in some areas, I stopped spinning the spindle and smooshed the merino down the crochet cotton to create the coils. Overall I like how it came out. I think next attempt I am going to over spin the thick and thin single for a tighter affect.

"All religions are essentially the same in their goal of developing a good human heart so that we may become better human beings."

If the mind is dominated by hatred, the best part of the brain, which is used to judge right and wrong, does not function properly."

"One aspect of compassion is to respect others' rights and to respect others' views. That is the basis of reconciliation. The human spirit of reconciliation based on compassion is working deep down, whether the person really knows it or not. Our basic human nature is gentleness; therefore, no matter how much we go through violence and other bad things, ultimately the proper solution is to return to human feeling and affection. So affection or compassion is not only a religious matter, but in our day-to-day life it is quite indispensable."

"On a daily basis, you must take more care of your mind than just money, money, money!

"It is our enemies qho provide us with the challenge we need to develop the qualities of tolerance, patience, and compassion."

"To develop genuine devotion, you must know the meaning of teachings. The main emphasis in Buddhism is to transform the mind, and this transformation depends upon meditation. In order to meditate correctly, you must have knowledge."

I made my first Handspun Yarn Sale on Etsy this morning! I am super excited. I had just finished spinning the yarn two days ago, put it up on my store yesterday and I didn't even have a change to blog about it yet! So here it is This yarn is called Cloisonne and is Spun from a Butterfly Girl Designs Batt. The white is Blue Faced Lester with Kid Mohair in Pink, blue, purple and yellow and gold Angelina through out it. It is thick and thin but mostly super bulky. I love how it came out and ordered another Batt so I can spin some up for myself. Below is another Yarn that I spun up from a Batt From Appalachian Voodoo Fibers . I call this yarn Everything and the Kitchen Sink because it literally contains almost every type of fiber you can imagine in all different colors. It contains the following: Alpaca, Yak, Merino, Bamboo, Punta, Firestar, Icicle, Angelina, Glitz, Corriedale, Silk, Tussah Silk, Shredded Sari Silk, Silk Noils, Lincoln, Lincoln Locks, Tinsel and Yarn Bits.

"Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk."